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Nine Inch Nails and Explosions in the Sky

For better or worse, The Downward Spiral defined a solid year of my life. I discovered Nine Inch Nails' 1994 opus at the acme of adolescence, and its bilious moodiness and fragmented moments of limpid beauty were the perfect accompaniment to the awkwardness and frustration of which I couldn't seem to get atop. From there, I explored the back catalog of Halos, but Pretty Hate Machine was too wussy and Broken seemed more or less incoherent. So The Downward Spiral it was, and it might still rank as one of the albums I've listened to the most—so much so, that I can more or less perfectly recall each and every note of its 65 minutes. It says something, though, that I have never revisited the album after that fateful year or so, not even once. I've been happy to keep it on the shelf as an un-ruptured capsule of pure adolescent angst. When Trent Reznor released the double album The Fragile in 1999, I had moved well on; I don't think I've ever gotten all the way through disc one. Still, I've found a lot to like on this new Nine Inch Nails album, Hesitation Marks, so maybe I've gotten to the age where I'm capable of visiting and analyzing a time from the past that wasn't necessarily 100 percent happy. Subsequently, I couldn't be more stoked to finally see Nine Inch Nails live, and who knows? Maybe afterward I'll be ready to dig out that tattered copy of The Downward Spiral and relive some very vivid memories. NED LANNAMANN